Haliburton busses in foreign workers to clean up NO for slave wages...DOBBS: Jesse Jackson says he's seeing firsthand major hiring abuses right now in the Gulf Coast, resulting from the suspension of Davis-Bacon. Reverend Jackson just returned from New Orleans and joins us tonight from Washington, D.C.
Jesse, first of all, do you see any evidence that more people are being hired? Because that was part of the rationale on the part of the Bush administration.
REV. JESSE JACKSON, RAINBOW/PUSH COALITION: Well, really, it amounts to a hurricane for the victims and a windfall for Halliburton and Bechtel, because when you suspend Davis-Bacon and make jobs below the average prevailing wage, they are busing in immigrant workers to, in fact, take those jobs.
There are no incentives for the victims of the hurricane to, in fact, have priority on jobs, job training and contracts.
DOBBS: And the priority should be, without question, those who live in the region, but many have been evacuated from New Orleans. What is the feeling amongst the people of New Orleans with whom you've spoken about what's going on?
JACKSON: It compounds their sense of alienation. For example, these five $100 million no bid contracts are for clean-up purposes. So Halliburton may get $30 a yard for removing debris, they want local workers to get $6 a yard to remove it. So, there seems to be a cap on wages and insurance, but no cap on profits.
See, we complained about -- we said those who were left behind were too poor to get out. If you reduce people to $6 an hour wages, they still can't buy a car. They can't buy gas. They can't buy a homestead house. You're condemning workers to poverty, but no limits for those who are getting no-bid -- and I meant not necessarily no-bid contracts.
DOBBS: Well, let me ask you Jesse, the mayor of New Orleans, the governor of Louisiana, why in the world aren't they protesting and representing their constituents in this? Because it is on the face of it -- well, the nicest word I can put it is unreasonable to allow open-ended contracts, cost-plus, and put a minimum effectively, to reduce the minimum that workers will be paid.
JACKSON: Well, it is a federal bailout on the states' rights conditions deal. And they're using the excuse of the emergency to suspend prevailing wages which are below union wages, I might add. And to suspend affirmative action, to suspend workers' rights.
I mean, there's no job in cleanup. The small business in Gulfport, or in Biloxi, or Pascagoula, Mobile, you're talking about trucking and hauling and dumping. All these jobs could be handled by disaster relief victims. So why can't the disaster victims have priority on job training and jobs and contracts? There's no victims relief fund. And they want to dumb down wages and make them less able? They're compounding their misery. It's unfair.
DOBBS: Reverend Jesse Jackson, we thank you for being with us.
JACKSON: Thank you.
DOBBS: Coming up next here, a modern day exodus for many residents of the Gulf Coast. Hundreds of people who fled to Texas after Katrina are now being forced to move once again. We'll have a live report. We'll be talking with some of the people for whom this will be the second hurricane in less than a month that they have to flee.
And Hurricane Rita, now a massive category five storm. We'll have a live update on how it became so powerful, so fast. And an update on where it is now headed. Stay with us.
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